Hi Guys, I've been chasing my tail for days now since the "help" received elsewhere assumes a level of experience I just don't have!

The project:
I "Won" an eBay item...M*A*S*H The Martini's and Medicine Collection....36 disks 264 episodes across 11 seasons etc.
The disks include sound track options with/without "Canned Laughter", and 3 or 4 Subtitle options.
...I've reached an age where my ears also need glasses, so the subs are a neccessary extra!

Now, the flaw.
.....I don't have a DVD player.
Watching on my PC's 27 inch screen is OK, but I'd rather be "Slouched on the couch" and watching on my 2010 Sony KDL-40NX803 TV via my DLNA Server.."Serviio"

By way of a trial, I have ripped the first disk and that seems to have been successful in creating 8 MKV Files (one per episode) none of the fancy navigation clicky screens, just 8 seperate episodes. (didn't know what to expect, but that was a surprise!)
Those files play better than the disk using VLC, no artifacts or pixillations, and also include all the soundtrack/subtitle options!
sadly Serviio, via my TV can't play these files even though it shows a thumbnail, when asked to "play" it has a panic attack, and says "Temporarily can't acces server, try again later".
Used "Wondershare video converter to convert to mp4 which asked for commitment to soundtrack and subtitle language and "fixed" them.
Serviio plays that just fine and even upscales from 4:3 to fill my 1920x1080 screen....not sure if it's truely 16:9, since the pic is slightly stretched but not to the extent that you think you're watching Snow White's little friends performing!

I'm told by those wiser than I (it don't take much!) that the cleanest/fastest option would be to remux the MKV to a proper TS using TsMuxer and I'd have to check whether TsMuxer will carry over all streams.
....Not sure I understand much of that!
Can someone here advise me what I need to do?
Currently I have "MakeMKV" installed and that was what I used to rip the first disk...would you suggest ripping the full set with that, and then using something else to complete the magic?
Or is there a one step solution?
Thanks for reading!

I've been using VidCoder to go directly from DVD disc to MKV. No ripping involved. But I do have AnyDVD HD running in the background. With my PC it's fast, about 20 minutes for most DVDs. For episodic DVDs, I manually select each episode by their displayed time. (No intro or other stuff encoded that way.) I don't do subs, but the program probably does.

For the TV playback problem, I don't know. I rarely use VLC for that as it's a bit of a resource hog. I do use it for direct DVD disc playback. Media Player Classic HD might be a better choice.

I've been using VidCoder to go directly from DVD disc to MKV. No ripping involved. But I do have AnyDVD HD running in the background. With my PC it's fast, about 20 minutes for most DVDs.

I'm getting confused about the terminology again I think.
I thought that "ripping" was the transfer of the DVD content to your PC.
You say VidCoder goes directly from DVD to MKV with "no ripping involved", yet you then say it takes 20 minutes....to do what?

Originally Posted by redwudz

For episodic DVDs, I manually select each episode by their displayed time. (No intro or other stuff encoded that way.) I don't do subs, but the program probably does.

That is what I found when I used "MakeMKV", I made no selections and didn't know what the output would be, it was quite a surprise when I found just 8 MKV Folders, each containing one episode complete with all Sound track and Subtitle choices, but none of the fancy clicky navigation menus that hold the DVD together.

Originally Posted by redwudz

For the TV playback problem, I don't know. I rarely use VLC for that as it's a bit of a resource hog. I do use it for direct DVD disc playback. Media Player Classic HD might be a better choice.

You have now opened up a whole 'nother can o'worms here!
When I mentioned VLC playback, I was meaning on my PC....Your statement that it was a resource hog implied it could stream data as well as being just a PC based Media player.
..... NOW I find that it can also stream "to networked PC's".....not sure if that would include "Smart TV's".
Either way, set up looks more complex than setting up Serviio was so I think I would take the line of least resistance there and stick with Serviio!

'Ripping' is generally defined as making an 'exact' copy of a DVD disc, minus the encryption. What I do is convert 'on the fly' from the disc to my PC drive. The conversion is to MKV (H.264 and AC-3 audio.) Usually the audio is already AC-3, so that's just a copy. I use a Quality setting of 19.5 and for a whole DVD, it converts to about a 2 GB MKV with great quality, IMO.

With a Blu-ray, I do rip as it takes so much longer that I don't want to thrash my BD drive for that amount of time. Then I do the conversion from my HDD.

With VLC I was only referring to playback. Haven't tried it for streaming, but others here likely have. If you have a slow PC, such as a laptop, VLC may stutter on high definition video where MPC-HD may not.

All my converted videos are stored on a server in another room, just a PC with a bunch of HDDs. I access them over my wired LAN system and use WakeOnLan to turn them on so they don't run all the time.

But there are lots of ways to do all this. One is to pick up a used WDTV Live off Ebay and plug that into the TV with a large USB drive attached to the WD. Or many of the newer BD players can do the same thing. I've gotten comfortable with VidCoder. I can load up four DVDs in my PC, select them and walk away while they are all converted.

Wow! redwudze!
I'm really learning things now!
So, your "convert on the fly" isn't then streamed to your TV or whatever, it is saved to HDD!
I presume the "Quality Setting" is some control on the Vidcoder software.
when you say the whole DVD converts to a 2GB MKV File, I checked the files MakeMKV created on my HDD, 8 seperate files totalling 7.16GB !
Granted, that includes two sound tracks and 4 subtitle languages, but that is a lot of wasted space!
I converted one of the MKV Files to mp4 in an effort to get Serviio to "See" and "Play" the file. the saving is 0.5 GB...just for one episode!
Granted, the subs are burned into the file, but what the hell!
Does copying in this way put a lot of strain on the player?

Regarding VLC, too complicated to set up for streaming, I'm satisfied with Serviio.

You have also grabbed my interest concerning Servers and other seperately stored and accessed disks.

My Service provider TalkTalk here in the UK have recently given me a new Router, http://www.theproductsite.com/blog/benefits-of-the-talktalk-huawei-hg533-router/ which incorporates "Samba" DLNA firmware.
Aparently, I could just plug in an ext HDD and it would stream content to my networked devices.
I've not yet set it up, but one thing I was worried about was that I have my router "always on" and the thought of a HDD just running all the time makes me fear for my electricity bill and also the fire risk!
You mention "Wake on LAN", I'll have to google that!
Also, I have a couple of machines running Linux...could one of these be used as a server?
And again, would it need to be "Lit up" all the time?

Just too tired to stay up any longer, will catch you again tomorrow I hope.